


In the palm of his hand

by TheIceQueen



Series: Buttercreams and friends prompts. [6]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Burns, Byron is Awesome, Crying, Cute Ending, Fear, First Aid, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Light Angst, Loss of Control, Men Crying, Pain, Panic, Prompt Fic, Unconsciousness, Worried Conor and Byron, poor joe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 20:57:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14881064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIceQueen/pseuds/TheIceQueen
Summary: Prompt:Could you, maybe, write one about Joe accidentally burning himself while cooking and one (or more) of his friends (maybe Jack or Conor) helping him?





	In the palm of his hand

“Fuck!” Joe screamed and dropped to the floor. The pot with boiling water made it’s way down too, thankfully not hitting anything, or any _one_ , but the cupboard and the floor.

Conor spun around just in time to see Byron softening Joe’s fall. “What happened? You okay?”

Joe was rocking back and forth holding both hands to his middle. At first, he’d thought that it had been too quick to do any damage, but already at this point, the pain spread from his hand through his arm and made him shake. Byron had a hand on Joe’s upper arm, which was comforting, but at the same time was a reminder that he was scaring other people here.

“Joe?” Conor sat hunched down in front of him.

“I’m fine. Just fell.” He was trying hard not to grind his teeth, in an attempt to hold back screaming.

Byron squeezed his arm a little. “Joe… Did you support yourself on the hotplate when you fell?”

Joe looked up and saw Conor looking shocked from one roommate to the other. They’d been cooking dinner, listening to music and laughing for a while, before Joe took the pot of the hotplate to pour some of it out. When he’d turned back, he’d tripped and stumbled towards the stove. His palm was burning. His whole hand was aching, and his arm and shoulder were tensing up to the point where his whole upper body was shaking.

“I’m… I…”

Conor held out a hand. “Let me see.”

Joe couldn’t say anything. His breathing was reduced to short, way too fast, gasps for air. He slowly wrapped his hand from between the other and his midsection. The burning got worse with the contact of the air and without the pressure. He placed it, palm up, on Conor’s hand.

“Shit…” Conor’s voice indicated that panic was not only Joe’s concern. “You need to get this under water, now.”

Conor took Joe’s other arm and tried pulling him up, but even though Joe could think of nothing else than getting his hand cooled down, his body just wouldn’t cooperate. His legs were heavy, and he was not even sure he had a spine anymore. Byron’s strong arms moved under his, from his back and wrapped themselves around his chest. He was pulled up and stood in front of the sink. Conor turned on the water and placed Joe’s hand under the stream. The sudden pressure made Joe cry out and his knees give in, he was only just able to support himself from falling, with his other arm.

Joe tried to calm his breathing while he heard Conor buzz around the kitchen, shutting off everything and picking up the pot from the floor. It was getting harder to keep his legs from caving under him and he was aware of that he was swaying, but the lack of air getting into his lungs and the pain took presence. He felt Byron rest a heavy arm over his shaking shoulders.

“You okay there?”

Joe wanted to nod and say that he was fine, but he couldn’t do anything but staring at his red hand and trying to stay standing, it would be a lie anyway. His palm was puffy, angry red and his fingers were swollen.

“Joe. You need to sit down… Conor, I think we should get him a chair.”

Joe heard something moving behind him, but before he could look forward to sitting he dropped to the floor. Once again Byron was right there, making the impact less violent. “Joe? You with us?”

Joe managed to nod, but with the hand out of the cool water, the pain made him shake all over and he couldn’t hold back tears.

Conor’s hand was on his knee. He only knew that because both of Byron’s were still holding him upright. “Joe? Talk to us. Didn’t the water help?”

“It… it did. I’m…” The pain was getting worse and before he could press out any more words, Joe was crying loudly. “Make it stop… My hand… Oh my God, it hurts.”

“I know man, I know.” Byron said something to Conor that Joe didn’t hear through all the gasps and pleads for help.

“Okay, Joe. C’mon.” Byron’s strong arms moved under his knees and behind his back, then Joe left the floor. Scared that he was falling, Joe grabbed on to Byron’s shoulder’s and neck with his good arm.

“By… what…?”

“Hang on Joe. Were just going to the bathroom.”

Joe didn’t understand, his eyes couldn’t focus on anything, and his head felt airy. “I’ma… pass… I’ma p’ss out.”

“No, no. Stay with us a little longer.” Byron sat Joe down on the floor and leaned him against Conor already sitting against the tub.

“Give me your arm.” Byron tried to move Joe’s arm to the tub, but he was tensing up, protecting it against his stomach. Not able to see right, Joe was scared, and not only for the pain. He didn’t know what was happening and he didn’t want to pass out.

A hand rubbed his upper arm. Conor was talking calmly into his ear. “Joe. We need to cool your hand. It’ll feel a lot better. Relax and put your arm in the tub.”

Joe took a shaky breath, but better than the gasps he’d been doing for a while now, and led Byron move his arm under the cool water. He let out a heartbreaking sob, when the water first hit, but soon he was only shaking lightly and had stilled his crying.

Conor brushed Joe’s hair from his face, not that he could see him anyway, sitting behind him. “Is it better?”

Joe was having trouble keeping his eyes open. He didn’t know why he’d stopped crying. The pain was still bad, better with the water running over his hand, but still bad. His body and head wasn’t reacting to anything.

“Joe? Can you look at me?” Byron’s voice was clear as day, but Joe couldn’t focus on the shape of a person in front of him. “Can you hear me?”

Joe nodded slightly, at least he was pretty sure he did. His head pounded in rhythm with the pulse in his arm and hand. Everything hurt. Joe felt Conor grab his forehead and figured that his body had given up on holding up his head.

Two hands took his shoulders and he was moved. “N-n… no.”

“Relax Joe. It’s all good, you just need to lie down.”

* * *

Joe woke up on his side with his head on a folded towel. “Byron?”

“Hey, Joe. Thank god. You scared the living shit out of me.”

Joe noticed his throbbing palm and remembered the burn. He tried to withdrew his hand, but Byron had already foreseen that and held his forearm steady.

“Lay still. You’ll tip the bucket.”

Joe looked at the bucket in front of him, his arm was over the edge and Byron was holding his hand in it while showering it with water.

“What?” Joe was still a little out of it and wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen now. He could hear Conor talking on the phone, somewhere behind him, and then walking away.

“You passed out. It might have been pain, or fear of pain. The doctor said that…”

“The doctor?”

Byron smiled reassuringly. “Yeah. We called 999 when you passed out, Conor is still talking to them.”

Joe’s heart skipped a beat. He’d really scared them.

“Hey. Welcome back.” Joe looked up at Conor, who looked scared out of his mind, not like the calm Byron in front of him. “The doctor needs to know how much it hurts now.”

Joe assessed his body, arm, hand and palm. “It’s still burning, but it’s only my palm now, before it was my whole arm.”

Conor nodded and walked away again. The bucket was filling up, and Joe’s hand was slowly getting submerged in the cool water. It was a good feeling at first but if he didn’t move his hand the water around it warmed up and it started burning again. Byron saw his restlessness and when he had to turn of the water to keep it from spilling he yelled for Conor to find another bucket or a bowl.

Conor came in with a trashcan and gave it to Byron while kneeling down behind Joe. He put a hand on his arm and Joe was surprised to learn that he was able to relax more from it.

“Lift your hand over here.” Byron had turned the water on into the trashcan and moved it within Joe’s reach.

Joe lifted his hand slowly from the bucket, feeling the sore muscles in an arm that had been laying crooked for too long. Out of the water the skin started burning immediately and he held his breath while trying to control his shaking arm. Conor reached over and helped him move it safely under the stream and Joe exhaled and relaxed his entire body.

“It’s not…” Joe was getting scared again. This was too much pain, this was not normal.

“What?” Conor’s hand was back on his arm, calming him. “Joe. It’s not, what?”

“It’s not helping. It still burns as soon as I take it out.”

Byron leaned in to be in Joe’s line of sight. “It’s only been twenty minutes, you were not even out for five. The doctor said that if there was no blisters yet, it’s only a first degree burn. We may need to do this for three hours, and blisters will most likely come later, but everything is good. You’ll be just fine.”

Joe looked from one friend to the other. Even Conor had looked like he wasn’t worried anymore as soon as Joe had talked to him.

“You sure?”

“We’re sure.” Conor squeezed his arm and smiled.

“Can I sit up?” Joe was asking Byron. It seemed like he’d been the one in charge.

“If you think you’re okay.”

Joe was getting to be his old self again. His head was clear and even though his body felt like he needed about a week’s worth of sleep, he could feel everything and was in control.

After a few minutes sitting against the tub, and Byron still pouring the water over his hand, they all came to the conclusion that they were hungry. Joe and Byron had tried to convince Conor that he should finish up the dinner and serve it to them on a silver tray in the bathroom, but they’d settled on ordering pizza and moving to the living room as soon as Joe could manage just having his hand submerged and didn’t need the running water.

It ended up being a late night, since Joe got in and out of pain and had to rush to the water, quite a few times. Eventually he’d let Byron wrap his hand in a sterile bandage from their med-kit and had taken a few pain killers and went to bed.

“Here.” Conor came into the room with a bucket.

“I’m not going to be sick.” Joe grinned but grimaced as he moved the cover under his hand.

Conor put the bucket, half filled with water, on the floor next to the bed. “If you wake up and it hurts, you’ll have something close.”

Joe smiled at Conor. “Thanks… thank for everything.”

Conor walked to the door. “Well, Byron did most of it.” He looked a little embarrassed.

“If he wasn’t here. You would have.”

Joe sat up in bed and looked seriously at his friend. “Thanks for caring enough to go all mamma hen on me.” Joe grinned and eventually they both laughed, before Conor turned off the light and let Joe get some much needed sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I've done exactly that to my hand, so I know how it hurts and when it's not dangerous. I didn't have the luxury of passing out, (I was close though) and I was alone. Instead I went to work with a kitchen towel wrapped around my hand. Ended up spending the whole day shaking and having my hand in a pitcher four hours that night. Don't do it!


End file.
